*The below message is taken from the weekly Cathedral Record newsletter. The full Cathedral Record is available to pick up from the Cathedral or can be downloaded here.*
Clergy Transfer List
Last week we received a list outlining the clergy moves which will take effect over the next few months with most priests moving to new parishes or appointments for the beginning of September. This list indicates that there are a lot more changes than in the past few years, due to clergy retirements, ill health and other pastoral considerations.
The Cathedral has been affected by these summer moves with Fr Ged moving from here to be Administrator of St Francis De Sales parish in Walton, taking effect from September. Sadly we will be saying farewell to Fr Ged in a couple of months time but thankfully we will not be left short-staffed as he will be replaced by Dominic Ridley who is to be ordained a priest on 9th July.
Fr James Claffey OP who has been living at Cathedral House for the last few months is due to replace Fr Ian McParland from July as University Chaplain – Fr Ian is having a sabbatical before his next appointment.
Also Richard Lea who has been our Cathedral Organist since 1999 will be moving to a new post this summer. He will be relocating to Dartmoor as the organist for Buckfast Abbey to work alongside their Director of Music, Philip Arkwright, another former Metropolitan Cathedral musician. Due to the considerable wide range of musical activities that Richard was involved in I gather he is fully booked with leaving doo’s between now and the end of July we wish him well and thank him for his years of service here.
This week we celebrate the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on Wednesday 29th June. This is a Holyday of Obligation and Mass times will be as the normal weekday timetable with the choir singing at evening Mass.
On Thursday the crew from ‘Salvage Hunters’ will be here filming an episode for their programme. They will want to tell something of the story of the building of our Cathedral and filming around the building and then I am supposed to enter into negotiations with the presenter, Drew Pritchard, regarding the sale of discarded items stored around the building – this could be a long negotiation depending on what he is interested in buying and what I would be prepared to sell him.
The Cunard building in Liverpool celebrates its hundredth anniversary in 2017 and with the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner in port on Saturday they are having a celebratory meal on board to anticipate this anniversary. Bishop Tom was invited along to represent the Archdiocese and I didn’t need any persuasion to go along as his guest. Never having been on a cruise liner before it will be an opportunity not to miss – I wonder how easy It is to stow away these days!
The results of the referendum have meant that there was a rather shocked and solemn mood in Cathedral House at the time of writing this. It will obviously take some time for the full impact of this decision, to sever ties with the European Union, and the unfolding consequences to be fully realised. We hope and pray that those of all parties in government will co-operate and work together to enable this transition to progress without acrimony and in-fighting. At such a time of change we need to pray for those who hold public office that they lead the country forward with wisdom and dedication.
Canon Anthony O’Brien
DEAN
